Communication, Extension And Smallholder Farmers In South Africa: Targeting The Poor In The Development Process

International Journal of Economics and Management Studies

© 2020 by SSRG - IJEMS Journal

Volume 7 Issue 5

Year of Publication : 2020

Authors : Elliot M. Zwane, Robert Agunga, Chris O. Igodan

10.14445/23939125/IJEMS-V7I5P104

How to Cite?

Elliot M. Zwane, Robert Agunga, Chris O. Igodan, "Communication, Extension And Smallholder Farmers In South Africa: Targeting The Poor In The Development Process," SSRG International Journal of Economics and Management Studies, vol. 7,  no. 5, pp. 17-26, 2020. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/23939125/IJEMS-V7I5P104

Abstract:

In 2008, the Government of South Africa declared its extension system as the weakest link in its agricultural development program and, with funding from The Netherlands Government, established the Extension Recovery Plan (ERP) to transform it. The ERP is entering its eighth year, and it may be too early to measure its impact. However, in 2011, our research group, called ExtensionAfrica, conducted extension surveys in nine African countries, South Africa included, aimed at understanding the training needs of extension workers. Our study found that in South Africa, as well as in the other eight countries, the primary need of extension workers is for training in development and communication, otherwise referred to the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as “Communication for Development” (C4D). In their joint 2007 report, World Congress on Communication for Development: Lessons, Challenges, and the Way Forward, the World Bank and FAO reported that “communication is integral to the development and to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. For this reason, it must be built into development planning and embedded in strategies for poverty reduction, health planning, and governance” (p. xxvii). Similarly, it is noted that African governments have adopted integrated rural development programs (IRDPs) and, more recently, National Poverty Reduction Strategy Programs (NPRSPs) as a way of promoting holistic development [1]. However, he warned that while these IRDPs and PRSPs are becoming increasingly complex, extension workers charged with their implementation lack the sophistication to cope with this complexity. Thus, our study has concluded that C4D training is essential to transforming Extension in South Africa as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa and recommends a C4D framework for empirical testing and replication as a way to smallholder farmer productivity, reduce poverty, and achieve food security in Africa [2].

Keywords:

Extension Recovery Plan, Information and Communication and Technologies (ICTs), Communication for Development (C4D), Integrated Rural Development (IRD).

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